Lilly Teal

Encinitas seems to be a real yoga hell-hole. Where John Friend was hoping to build his Yoga Jonestown center, and now this. Apparently it all goes back to the original Indian sell-outs who came here spreading their Westernized yoga gospel for the same fame and fortune motives?

Is there some kind of toxic sinkhole out there? Will the earth suddenly open-up, and thousands of people will be swallowed whole? Sounds Biblical.

“My mom gave me a choice of either Bikram yoga or ballet, so I chose yoga,” Green said of the “hot yoga” that forces the body to adapt. “It definitely helped me a lot on and off the field as far as staying focused on my breathing. I’m definitely more flexible and just the whole mental part on the field, yoga has helped me tremendously.”

WOW you mean you don’t need that Hindu gobbledy-gook or all those happy horseshit encomiums from your local wannabe priestess to “get” the breathing or meditative benefits of yoga?

Just consistent asana body work will do it?

Who’d of thunk!!!

There’s a new story from the Detroit Free Press about University of Michigan star football running back Derrick Green using Bikram Yoga to become the nation’s top college recruit.

http://www.freep.com/article/20130609/SPORTS06/306090111/michigan-wolverines-football-derrick-green-top-recruit

I know how much Yoga Dork loves to celebrate top sports stars using yoga to enhance their athletic abilities.

HAIL BIKRAM!!!!

I don’t believe that YogaWorks has franchises. It has dozens of locations, but they are all owned by YogaWorks.

Will look into it, thanks Lala. You’re making the case even stronger then.

I wonder if Yoga Dork could do some actual research — I know, wow, what a burden — on Bikram studios, and why so many franchisees, mostly women, seem so happy that they have found a route to business ownership?

How many women has the Bikram business model empowered in this way compared to say, the Anusara model, or the Ashtanga model, or the Iyengar model? Any idea?

Even some of the pother corporate systems – Yoga Works, Core Yoga, have what, a few dozen places, max, comp[ared to what, hundreds of Bikram studio franchises?

Talk to franchisees, and see what it’s actually meant to them? I know several happy campers just in the Washington, DC area.

Franchising is not for everyone certainly, but when it works, it works.

Second, a lot of people start with Bikram – and then move on. Bikram is a big yoga gateway drug — and other methods and practices should probably be glad he helped establish and enlarge the yoga market.

That’s capitalism — and face it, American yoga, 95% of ity, is ALL about capitalism and capitalist values.

Seen the marketing on this web site lately?

Don’t forget “Take lots of naked pictures of yourself in yoga poses.” There are many yoginis that built a career around being photographed in the nude!

Pathological Huckster Drag

You’re comparing applies and oranges. Care of the soul is far too important to be left in the hands of untrained spiritual bimbos and priestess wannabes. Go back to the origins of yoga. It’s a sacred trust, and there is a sacred process of transmitting the teachings to all, regardless of age. Otherwise, go into a different line of work. Maybe restaurant hostess?

Also, once you enter the realm of public space and authority, and relying on public resources, you are no longer providing a private good. You are proving a public one, subject to public regulation, monitoring and oversight. That is, if it’s really the public you care about. With yogis, one can never really tell.

I wonder if these school-based yoga teachers are even subject to a criminal background check? Anyone know? Yes, they have the yama and niyamas but that doesn’t mean squat to these folks. Trust me. A background check is the bare minimum for anyone operating in this environment, with access to children. God knows, they could be rifling through the kids’ belongings or worse. Who knows? Even part-time janitors pass basic checks. If they don’t want a background check – I know what an outrage, an attack on yogic freedom – then they can work somewhere else?

Hey Stewart- I can’t help but chime in here because I actually know the teacher who teaches the specific class that the child who’s parents started this lawsuit was initially attending. She emailed me last week a few days before she was set to testify. I know for a fact that she is a highly trained teacher who is studied extensively and has taught kids long before the schools program was envisioned. She was teaching at my center when the Encinitas program was developed and moved there to provide additional training to the teachers participating. All the teachers who are teaching these kids have been well trained to work with kids and on ensuring the appropriateness of what is being presented in the public sphere. Your insinuations here are based on fallacious reasoning. Yes, there are a lot of bad yoga teachers out there and we don’t want them teaching are kids. But that is not happening here. If yoga teachers are self-policing themselves and ensuring quality outcomes then they should be commended, not lumped in with all the other crap. And it should be noted that the overwhelming majority of parents, children, and teachers at these schools are exceedingly happy with the results they see from inclusion of these yoga classes in the curriculum. And those with religious beliefs that they feel are being compromised can easily choose to op out. No one is being force fed anything.

Imagine yogis guilty of spiritual trickery! That’s never happened before. Ever! Yogis never delve into mystical realms or seek to manipulate sacred energies to exercise control and influence over other people’s minds. No way. They’re really just like accountants, focused on the here and now, on what you can see and touch; the robes, the chanting, the invocation of the tantra, the Kundalini, that’s just hooey! They don’t really mean any of it.

All deep mind-body practices subvert ordinary consciousness, and are inherently invasive and intrusive. Unless parents are teaching their own children yoga, it’s definitely opening your children up to undue influence. At a bare minimum, I would want a tougher licensing of yoga teachers and in the short term, all teachers in this program might be certified specifically to work with children.

The Yoga Alliance is developing such a certification. It’s disingenuous for the Alliance to testify on behalf of the Ashtanga program unless it is also insisting that this certification be in place for all teachers in the Encinitas program. It really wouldn’t surprise me if the Alliance isn’t even mentioning the issue. That organization would do anything for more money and recognition.

Beyond that as a parent, would want children to be exposed to a range of mind-body practices, including Pilates, Tai Chi, Qi Qong, and others, not just force fed yoga because of over-zealous parents and a foundation with ready cash and its own well-documented corporate expansion agenda.

Maybe the main difference is that Jedi Knights were self-sacrificing warriors that actively worked against the Dark Side, rather than spiritual wannabes and posers that will sell their bodies and souls to to just about anything that glitters — even if it’s not even silver or gold.

As I recall, the Jedi Knights were all men, too. Most serious warriors are, after all.

And wasn’t it Darth Vader, a former Jedi and good guy, who was really, really into that deep breathing thing? Jus sayin’…